The 105-year-old Antwerp Diamond Bourse - Beurs voor Diamanthandel - is to launch a revolutionary initiative with an exclusive, by-invitation only diamond trade fair in the bourse trading hall, February 7-9, 2010.
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The three-day Antwerp Diamond Trade Fair will feature 43 leading Antwerp diamond firms. The bourse believes it can offer the widest possible range of polished diamonds to an exclusive group of diamond buyers, who have been handpicked from a list of high-end, European jewellery firms.
Antwerp Diamond Bourse President Artur Beller said the logic for holding the event in Antwerp was overwhelming. "Antwerp is the world’s number one diamond trading hub for polished diamonds," he said. "More than 50 percent of the world’s polished diamonds are traded here. No other center but Antwerp — and in particular the Antwerp Diamond Bourse — is able to bring under one roof a bigger and more varied selection of polished diamonds," he said.
Raphael Rubin, who together with bourse board members Bernard Weinberg, Jacky Korn and David Pienica serves on the Antwerp Diamond Trade Fair organizing committee, said preparations for the Antwerp Diamond Trade Fair began more than two years ago. "Many of our members exhibit annually at the leading international jewellery fairs in the United States, Europe and Asia, often in diamond pavilions organized by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC). But the diamond bourse believes that it has to become part of the growing number of invitation-only exhibitions aimed at high-end diamond, gem and jewellery buyers.
"We realized that under our own brand - the brand of the Antwerp Diamond Bourse which has been operating for more than a century - we could very well take the same route. We have a very wide variety of products, we are holding the show at a fantastic venue, and have access to an extensive data base of clients. Altogether, this makes the format of the Antwerp Diamond Trade Fair a unique marketing opportunity," Rubin stated.
"We have invited about 120 international diamond buyers from within the European Community, some who have done business in Antwerp before, as well as many others who have not yet. By temporarily converting our historical trading floor into an exclusively designed exhibition hall, we’re introducing these buyers to an unparalleled choice of goods, from Antwerp, the global diamond powerhouse of the 21st century," bourse president Artur Beller stated.
The Antwerp Diamond Trade Fair is sponsored by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, the umbrella organisation of the Belgian diamond industry.
